Page 23 of Happily Ever After

Sophie chewed her lip. “I need to talk to him in person.”

Essie shook her head. “I can’t help you with that. You’re welcome to talk to me, but you already know that and I already know you won’t. I hope you figure out soon that doing things your way isn’t working so well.”

Sophie stared at the floor.

Emboldened by the young woman’s silence, Essie straightened and decided to cut to the chase. “You know what else might help you have a good conversation with your dad?”

Sophie looked at her but said nothing.

Essie girded her loins and said what needed to be said. “Dropping those ridiculous lawsuits you’ve filed against us.”

Sophie’s chin quivered. She turned away.

Essie lifted her gaze heavenward and prayed for strength. “Well, if that’s all, I will certainly mention to Frank that you stopped by the next time I talk to him.”

She had a small load of towels to wash, then she was going to look through her recipe box to find something good to make for Thursday’s book club. Maybe that orange cake. She hadn’t made that in a while. If Gigi really was going to be there, Essie wanted to make sure there was something homemade as part of the snacks.

She set her water glass down and started for the laundry room.

Sophie hadn’t moved toward the door. She hadn’t moved at all, actually.

Essie took a few steps closer. “Was there something else you wanted to talk about?”

Sophie shook her head and covered the lower half of her face with her hands. Tears rimmed her lower lash line, but had yet to fall.

Concern filled Essie. Sophie was a handful but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worthy of kindness. “What is it?”

Sophie sobbed once before she spoke, her voice broken with emotion. “I don’t know what to do.”

“About the lawsuits? Or something else?”

Sophie sniffed and finally made eye contact with Essie again. “I’m pregnant.”

Chapter Ten

Maude had three browser windows open, two cups of coffee within reach (because she’d forgotten about the first one until after she’d made the second), and exactly none of the focus she needed.

The website on her screen belonged to a client who sold handmade tallow skincare. Soap, face and body balms, hair oil, deodorant. It was good stuff. They’d sent her a sampler after she’d taken them on as a client. She especially liked the jasmine body balm. She really ought to order more of that.

She adjusted the header on the New Products page, refreshed it, then adjusted the header again. It looked fine now. She could cross that off her To Do list.

Her attention drifted back to the yellow legal pad beside her laptop.

Gigi.

She’d written the name at the top of the page, then underlined it once. Nothing else followed. No notes, no real idea of what she was going to say or how she was going to say it. Just the name, sitting there like a challenge.

Maude leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. Inviting Gigi to book club wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was doing it in a way that didn’t feel like a setup. It had to come across as genuine.

She turned back to the screen and forced herself to work for a few minutes on the next website. She resized an image before adding it and the copy that went with it. She fixed a typo in the copy, then published it.

She sent a quick email to the client confirming the change was made. She crossed that off her To Do list and looked at the legal pad again.

The problem wasn’t really Gigi. The problem was Darcy.

Maude didn’t write that down, because she didn’t need to. Darcy being a problem was a given. She seemed to be everywhere Gigi was these days. Or maybe Gigi just didn’t leave her side.

Either way, Maude couldn’t talk to Gigi with Darcy hovering nearby. She didn’t want to risk having the invitation seen as some kind of challenge or provocation. Gigi needed to hear the Queen Bees’ offer without commentary from Darcy.